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<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html" title="No-Install Quickstart">No-Install Quickstart</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<div class="toc"><dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.basic_procedure">Basic
        Procedure</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_of_trouble">In
        Case of Trouble</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_everything_seemed_to_wor">In
        Case Everything Seemed to Work</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project">Modifying
        the Example Project</a></span></dt>
</dl></div>
<p>
        There is no need to “install Boost” in order to get started using Boost.Python.
        These instructions use <a href="http://www.boost.org/build" target="_top">Boost.Build</a>
        projects, which will build those binaries as soon as they're needed. Your
        first tests may take a little longer while you wait for Boost.Python to build,
        but doing things this way will save you from worrying about build intricacies
        like which library binaries to use for a specific compiler configuration
        and figuring out the right compiler options to use yourself.
      </p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">
<p>
          Of course it's possible to use other build systems to build Boost.Python
          and its extensions, but they are not officially supported by Boost. Moreover
          <span class="bold"><strong>99% of all “I can't build Boost.Python” problems
          come from trying to use another build system</strong></span> without first following
          these instructions.
        </p>
<p>
          If you want to use another system anyway, we suggest that you follow these
          instructions, and then invoke <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code>
          with the
        </p>
<p>
          <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">a</span>
          <span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">o</span></code><span class="emphasis"><em>filename</em></span>
        </p>
<p>
          options to dump the build commands it executes to a file, so you can see
          what your alternate build system needs to do.
        </p>
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.basic_procedure"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.basic_procedure" title="Basic Procedure">Basic
        Procedure</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<p>
          1. Get Boost; see sections 1 and 2 of the Boost <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/getting_started/" target="_top">Getting
          Started Guide</a>.
        </p>
<p>
          2. Get the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code> build driver.
          See section 5 of the Boost <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/getting_started/" target="_top">Getting
          Started Guide</a>.
        </p>
<p>
          3. cd into the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">example</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span><span class="special">/</span></code> directory of your Boost.Python installation,
          which contains a small example project.
        </p>
<p>
          4. Invoke <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code>. Replace
          the “<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">stage</span></code>“ argument
          from the example invocation from section 5 of the Boost <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/getting_started/" target="_top">Getting
          Started Guide</a> with “<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">test</span></code>,“
          to build all the test targets. Also add the argument “<code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">--</span><span class="identifier">verbose</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">test</span></code>” to see the output generated by
          the tests when they are run. On Windows, your <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code>
          invocation might look something like:
        </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">C</span><span class="special">:\\...\\</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">bjam</span> <span class="identifier">toolset</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="identifier">msvc</span> <span class="special">--</span><span class="identifier">verbose</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">test</span> <span class="identifier">test</span>
</pre>
<p>
          and on Unix variants, perhaps,
        </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">.../</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span><span class="error">$</span> <span class="identifier">bjam</span> <span class="identifier">toolset</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="identifier">gcc</span> <span class="special">--</span><span class="identifier">verbose</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">test</span> <span class="identifier">test</span>
</pre>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
            For the sake of concision, the rest of this guide will use unix-style
            forward slashes in pathnames instead of the backslashes with which Windows
            users may be more familiar. The forward slashes should work everywhere
            except in <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/getting_started/windows.html#command-prompt" target="_top">Command
            Prompt</a> windows, where you should use backslashes.
          </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
          If you followed this procedure successfully, you will have built an extension
          module called <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span></code>
          and tested it by running a Python script called <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">test_extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">py</span></code>.
          You will also have built and run a simple application called <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">embedding</span></code> that embeds python.
        </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_of_trouble"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_of_trouble" title="In Case of Trouble">In
        Case of Trouble</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<p>
          If you're seeing lots of compiler and/or linker error messages, it's probably
          because Boost.Build is having trouble finding your Python installation.
          You might want to pass the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">--</span><span class="identifier">debug</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">configuration</span></code> option to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code> the first few times you invoke it,
          to make sure that Boost.Build is correctly locating all the parts of your
          Python installation. If it isn't, consider <a class="link" href="configuring_boost_build.html" title="Configuring Boost.Build">Configuring
          Boost.Build</a> as detailed below.
        </p>
<p>
          If you're still having trouble, Someone on one of the following mailing
          lists may be able to help:
        </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
              The <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/mailing_lists.htm#jamboost" target="_top">Boost.Build
              mailing list</a> for issues related to Boost.Build
            </li>
<li class="listitem">
              The <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/mailing_lists.htm#cplussig" target="_top">Boost.Python
              mailing list</a> for issues specifically related to Boost.Python
            </li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_everything_seemed_to_wor"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.in_case_everything_seemed_to_wor" title="In Case Everything Seemed to Work">In
        Case Everything Seemed to Work</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<p>
          Rejoice! If you're new to Boost.Python, at this point it might be a good
          idea to ignore build issues for a while and concentrate on learning the
          library by going through the <a href="../tutorial/index.html" target="_top">Tutorial</a>
          and perhaps some of the <a href="../reference/index.html" target="_top">Reference Manual</a>,
          trying out what you've learned about the API by modifying the quickstart
          project.
        </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project" title="Modifying the Example Project">Modifying
        the Example Project</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<div class="toc"><dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.relocate_the_project">Relocate
          the Project</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.add_new_or_change_names_of_exist">Add
          New or Change Names of Existing Source Files</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.change_the_name_of_your_extensio">Change
          the Name of your Extension Module</a></span></dt>
</dl></div>
<p>
          If you're content to keep your extension module forever in one source file
          called <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span></code>, inside your Boost.Python distribution,
          and import it forever as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span></code>,
          then you can stop here. However, it's likely that you will want to make
          a few changes. There are a few things you can do without having to learn
          <a href="http://www.boost.org/build" target="_top">Boost.Build</a> in depth.
        </p>
<p>
          The project you just built is specified in two files in the current directory:
          <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">build</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">jam</span></code>, which tells <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code>
          where it can find the interpreted code of the Boost build system, and
          <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>, which describes
          the targets you just built. These files are heavily commented, so they
          should be easy to modify. Take care, however, to preserve whitespace. Punctuation
          such as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">;</span></code> will not be recognized
          as intended by <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">bjam</span></code> if
          it is not surrounded by whitespace.
        </p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.relocate_the_project"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.relocate_the_project" title="Relocate the Project">Relocate
          the Project</a>
</h5></div></div></div>
<p>
            You'll probably want to copy this project elsewhere so you can change
            it without modifying your Boost distribution. To do that, simply
          </p>
<p>
            a. copy the entire <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">example</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span><span class="special">/</span></code> directory into a new directory.
          </p>
<p>
            b. In the new copies of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">build</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">jam</span></code>
            and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>, locate the
            relative path near the top of the file that is clearly marked by a comment,
            and edit that path so that it refers to the same directory your Boost
            distribution as it referred to when the file was in its original location
            in the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">example</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span><span class="special">/</span></code>
            directory.
          </p>
<p>
            For example, if you moved the project from <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">home</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">dave</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">boost_1_34_0</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">libs</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">example</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">quickstart</span></code> to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">home</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">dave</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">my</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">project</span></code>, you could change the first
            path in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">build</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">jam</span></code> from
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">../../../../</span><span class="identifier">tools</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">build</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">src</span>
</pre>
<p>
            to
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">home</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">dave</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">boost_1_34_0</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">tools</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">build</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">src</span>
</pre>
<p>
            and change the first path in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>
            from
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">../../../..</span>
</pre>
<p>
            to
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">home</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">dave</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">boost_1_34_0</span>
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.add_new_or_change_names_of_exist"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.add_new_or_change_names_of_exist" title="Add New or Change Names of Existing Source Files">Add
          New or Change Names of Existing Source Files</a>
</h5></div></div></div>
<p>
            The names of additional source files involved in building your extension
            module or embedding application can be listed in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>
            right alongside <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span></code>
            or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">embedding</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span></code> respectively. Just be sure to leave
            whitespace around each filename:
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="error">…</span> <span class="identifier">file1</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span> <span class="identifier">file2</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span> <span class="identifier">file3</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span> <span class="error">…</span>
</pre>
<p>
            Naturally, if you want to change the name of a source file you can tell
            Boost.Build about it by editing the name in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>.
          </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title">
<a name="building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.change_the_name_of_your_extensio"></a><a class="link" href="no_install_quickstart.html#building.no_install_quickstart.modifying_the_example_project.change_the_name_of_your_extensio" title="Change the Name of your Extension Module">Change
          the Name of your Extension Module</a>
</h5></div></div></div>
<p>
            The name of the extension module is determined by two things:
          </p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
                the name in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>
                immediately following <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">extension</span></code>,
                and
              </li>
<li class="listitem">
                the name passed to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE</span></code>
                in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span></code>.
              </li>
</ol></div>
<p>
            To change the name of the extension module from <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">extending</span></code>
            to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">hello</span></code>, you'd edit
            <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">Jamroot</span></code>, changing
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">extension</span> <span class="identifier">extending</span> <span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span> <span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
            to
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="identifier">extension</span> <span class="identifier">hello</span> <span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">cpp</span> <span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
            and you'd edit extending.cpp, changing
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">extending</span><span class="special">)</span>
</pre>
<p>
            to
          </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">hello</span><span class="special">)</span>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
<td align="left"></td>
<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2002-2015 David
      Abrahams, Stefan Seefeld<br>Copyright © 2002-2015 David Abrahams, Stefan Seefeld<p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
      </p>
</div></td>
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